The Ultimate Five-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese | Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven

My mother passed down her macaroni and cheese recipe to me about 20 years ago. I have made my own tweaks since then to create what is now known as my Ultimate Five-Cheese Macaroni and Cheese. Made with a blend of sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, and parmesan cheeses, this dish has become a favorite of every single person who has tasted it. Yes, this recipe is a little labor intensive, but it is well worth it!

Get the written recipe: http://bit.ly/jeffrogersmacandcheese

Purchase the Lodge 3-quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven that was used in this video: http://amzn.to/1llsIKw

I normally cook this dish in glass. For this video, it was cooked in my Lodge 3-quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven. I have also had success with cooking this dish in a regular, ‘well-seasoned’ cast iron skillet. If cooked in glass, increase your temperature to 400 degrees. Also, the deeper your dish, the longer it will take to cook. If your dish is shallow, it will take less time. So, you may want to do a test run to be sure of the appropriate times for your cookware.

How to Make Macaroni and Cheese, Cast Iron, Dutch Oven, Mac and Cheese

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Videographer: Kristen N. Rogers
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When I was growing up my favorite dish was my mom’s macaroni and cheese my dad did most of the cooking in the house but when it came to holidays and my mom’s macaroni and cheese she definitely reigned supreme she passed this recipe down to me about 20

Years ago and since then I’ve added some tweaks to create what I now call my ultimate five-cheese macaroni and cheese it’s a recipe that I said I’d never give away but today I’m gonna share it with you here’s what you’ll need we’ll start with our cheese’s first sharp cheddar

Monterey Jack mozzarella grated Romano and grated Parmesan cheese you’ll also need elbow macaroni eggs butter whole milk sea salt white sugar Hungarian paprika dried besan and extra virgin olive oil let’s get started okay the first thing we’re gonna do is shred our cheese’s I like to buy blocks of cheese

Rather than cheese already shredded because when you buy the shredded cheese it’s coated with something that keeps it from sticking together and I want just the cheese so I go through the trouble of shredding it myself and I think it’s worth it all right one down two to go

Now for our Monterey Jack I work for quite a while trying to figure out what cheeses work together and these five seem to give the best taste all the great things about this dish are the variations that you can add on your own alright the Monterey Jack is done and I

Tell you shredding this cheese is really a labor of love and now for the mozzarella how much cheese you’ll actually need depends on how large of a dish you’re making I’m using about a pound of the sharp cheddar Monterey Jack and mozzarella alright all the cheese’s

Are great it now I’m going to set them in the fridge until I’m ready to add them to the dish bring a pot of water to a boil add a little bit of sea salt a little bit of olive oil and add your macaron once you add your macaroni you might

Want to kind of keep it moving so it doesn’t stick together now when cooking your macaroni you definitely don’t want to cook it to death you want to cook it to where it’s just shy about dente the best thing is to just taste the piece as you go along that’s perfect

It still has a little bit of chew but it’s not soggy all right we’re going to take this off drain it and I’ll show you what to do next after you drain your macaroni while it’s still hot add about 3/4 of a stick of butter and stir until

It’s melted okay I’m going to set this aside for about 20 minutes just to allow it to cool off a bit now we’re gonna build our macaroni and cheese before you do this pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees I’m going to be doing this today in my Lodge 3 quart

Cast-iron enameled Dutch oven the first thing we’re gonna do is I’m gonna come in and I’m gonna butter the inside of this dish Get every nook and cranny next I’m going to pour a layer of macaroni in the bottom let it cover the entire bottom try not to double your macaroni up too much you want a layer of macaroni and a layer of cheese and a layer macaroni a

Layer of cheese you don’t want too thick of a layer of macaroni alright that looks pretty good alright and then we’re going to start with our cheeses now I start with a white cheese first and then I go to my sharp cheddar and then I do

My other white cheese I do it this way so I can see where I’ve been okay so we’re gonna start with the mozzarella and we’re just gonna put a nice layer of that in and it might be a good idea we’re gonna do three layers so it might

Be a good idea to divide your cheese into three small piles I’ve done this a million times so I can kind of eyeball it okay that looks good now we’ll come in with our sharp cheddar when you do this you need a dish that’s going to be

At least three and a half inches deep and now our last white cheese and you can see what I mean about being able to see where you’ve been with each cheese okay that looks good we’re gonna take our dried basil and we’re gonna sprinkle a really fine layer over this you don’t

Want a lot but just sprinkle it and kind of off you can see that I’m just kind of rubbing my fingers together just to get a really fine layer of that you want to put it in a shaker or something that’s fine too okay another layer macaroni you

Can already start to see why you need a deep dish for this a shallow dish you might be able to get two layers and it’ll be good but not quite as good all right and then we’re going to go down with our cheese’s again our mozzarella a sharpshooter and the Monterey Jack

And then once again we’re gonna go in with a fine layer of our dried basil one more layer of macaroni now you can really see why you need a deep dish for this our macaroni is cooled down a lot so it’s not melting our cheese right away when we put this together that’s

What we don’t want on this last layer we want a mixture of the white cheese’s in the yellow cheese on top so we’re going to kind of alternate back and forth between the three cheese’s but I don’t want the yellow cheese to be completely covered up because I think it adds a

Nice color and adds to the presentation of the dish so put a little bit that is our mozzarella lit a sharp cheddar And Monterey Jack and we’re just kind of keep alternating it just so there’s a nice mix of cheeses on the top that clump They kind of leave a little bit of room around the edges so this cheese has somewhere to run without overflowing a little more sharp cheddar that’s pretty it’s a nice mix of the yellow sharp cheddar and the Monterey and the mozzarella okay one final layer of basil And now I’m gonna do a really light dusting of the Parmesan cheese and you just do this on top and now the Romano Okay and lastly I’m gonna come in with my Hungarian paprika and give this just a really really light dusting okay that looks great in a blender combine four eggs three cups of whole milk three teaspoons of sea salt and three teaspoons of white sugar and give that a good blend [Laughter]

Okay now we’re gonna pour our egg and milk mixture really slowly into the center of this you don’t want to mess your peppery cup on top and you’re gonna keep an eye on the sides you want to fill this just below the macaroni starting to see it come up and for this

Dish this is a perfect amount how much of this you’ll need once again will depend on how large of a dish you’re making okay when I had to live to this if you don’t have a lid use foil and now we’re going to put this into our 375

Degree oven for 30 minutes okay this has been in the oven 30 minutes now we’re going to uncover it I just see what it looks like amazing now it’s a little full so we’re gonna have to be really careful that this doesn’t run and drip into the oven

If yours gets a little full like this you can just put a little bit of foil right under it just in case it drips but I think we should be okay with this but this is why you want to leave a little bit of space in between the rim and the

Actual dish now this is gonna go back in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes when you get to about 20 minutes take a peek at it because you definitely don’t want to scorch the top if the top starts to get brown before the end of the 30

Minutes put the cover back on or tint the dish with foil okay here’s the finished dish and I promise you it tastes just as good as it looks I’m going to let this rest for about five minutes just to let it sit up a bit and then we’ll dive in when you make

This dish you may need to add a few tweaks in order to make it work for you I did this in cast-iron but I also do it in glass I find that cast iron cooks a lot quicker so you may need to adjust your times if you use glass one way to tell

If your macaroni and cheese hasn’t cooked long enough is to take something like a bamboo skewer stick it in the center if liquid comes out it hasn’t cooked long enough simply cover it and put it back in the oven at the same temperature for about 10 minutes so and check it again Easy simple and really good thanks for watching you